A recent comment on A Voice For Men brought my attention to a new-to-me feminist blog, “Gamers Are Embarrassing.” I’ve got to admit that my near-complete absorption with the Manosphere brought me to think the “gamers” being targeted were the Pick-Up Artist crowd; and I could see how those “gamers” could embarrass feminists, by charming the pants off of them quite literally.
No, it wasn’t. “Gamers Are Embarrassing” is all about the guys who have more fun chasing pixels than chasing skirts. Even more embarrassing, the blog is ranting-and-raving about guys who find the Mating Dance so hostile a field that they’d rather avoid it all and battle their way through Duke Nukem or Super Street Fighter or Grand Theft Auto …
Speaking as a lamer-gamer who takes the occasional break with Spider Solitaire, I must admit I’m way behind the times with these things. Perhaps I spend too much time on the boat to appreciate the importance of video games, or role-playing games, or World of Warcraft, or the like. (Please, if you get the idea I’m putting them down, I don’t mean to do so. I speak out of ignorance, not out of malice.)
But the writer of “Gamers Are Embarrassing” does speak out of malice. And very heatedly, too, in terms that are unquestionably crude, rude, shaming and insulting. Such liberal, sometimes almost exclusive, use of the “Seven Words Banned By The FCC,” results in a diatribe the likes of which would get a man thrown the hell out of any well-run bordello in the Western World. Yes, thrown so hard he’d bounce twice.
To what end? What is the major and overwhelming sociological disaster that leads “Gamers Are Embarrassing” to spread so much spleen across so much bandwidth? The most heavily-commented post on the front end of the blog would seem to answer that question:
Who Needs Love When You Can Have Videogames?
The shaming is laid on thick, the contempt is harsh. Any alternative point of view gets an immediate slap-down from the blogger, all to a constant theme of “it’s all the gamer’s fault.” No tolerance at all for the fellow who prefers video games to sitting “parked in front of (the TV) with you simply to get some ‘together time’.”
Underlying all the shame, the blame, the frothing foaming rabid monologue … it appears to me there is an overwhelming current of narcissism. An attitude of “How dare you be interested in something other than me, me, MEEEEEEEE!!!!!!”
Well, gee. If you’re so completely wrapped-up in yourself, ladies, you make a pretty small package. Something on the order of an “emotional black hole,” absorbing all the attention you can get and infinitely hungry for more, more, more. Anything that takes away the attention of your vic- ah, “boyfriend,” is intolerable and shameful and wrong, in your eyes.
And what about your interests? What about your demands? What gives them precedence over his interests and goals and pleasures, outside of your head?
As Alek Novy, who brought this blog to AVfM’s attention, puts it:
What does that say about women? Think about it… If a man would rather spend time with a bunch of pixels rather than spend time with you – what does that say about you? If you get beaten by a bunch of pixels, or some round white thing traveling around the screen (sports)?
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A few good links:
A Voice For Men has brought out a trifecta of stellar posts in the last week, with Setting the record straight (20 Feb 2012), Sexual privilege checklist (21 Feb 2012), and Double standards: the sine qua non of misandry (23 Feb 2012). There is a reason that Paul Elam’s site is the most heavily-visited Men’s Rights site on the Internet.
Judge Orders Man to Post Facebook Apology to Ex-Wife (The Spearhead, 24 Feb 2012) is a textbook example of double standards and misandry in the courts. The apology is eloquent of Stalinist show-trials, and the story is neatly counter-balanced with feminist lawyer Gloria Allred’s “victory for (feminist) free speech” described in the second comment to Welmer’s original post.
The False Rape Society has a couple of fresh items that have me scratching my head: Female animal oppression taken up by feminists and Date Rape lie led to revenge.
I went to Spacetraveller’s The Sanctuary in search of something to lighten up … and I suppose you could say I found it with her Feminism: A simple case of adult P-envy? (23 Feb 2012). Her description of watching a ‘master class’ on boxing, followed by a surely-hilarious bout between the male and female reporters doing the documentary, was certainly a well-needed piece of comedy relief.
BeijaFlor,
Thanks for the link!
Hahaha, I am glad you found the post comical.
(But I was actually being serious!)
I think it is a grave failure of womanhood to have these women as our ‘spokesperson’. Not a good image for us.
The good news is, I think the generation behnd mine will soon start to shut these women up. They are no-one’s role model.
Spacetraveller, the story about the boxing lesson was comical, though not comfortable. I was really straining for something to “lighten up” after those links that preceded yours.
I wish I could be more optimistic about “the generation behind (yours)”. There are very few things in the world that are more seductive than a Free Lunch. And it is, and will remain, men who must foot the bill.
BeijaFlor,
“And it is, and will remain, men who must foot the bill.”
This is a fact of life, BeijaFlor. A man should foot the bill, just like it is the woman who must bear the children.
It is not the aim of womanhood to foot the bill or go halves, or whatever…look what happened when we tried that.
No, my personal opinion (which I guess won’t be popular to anyone man or woman) is that the ‘job’ of good women is to never make a man regret footing the bill. The job of a woman is to make a good man feel good footing the bill. That is the missing piece of the jigsaw puzzle in today’s world.
Your and my grandfather did foot the bill. But they were not punished and deried for doing so. So they did it willingly. For honourable women. As it should be. A man of today is not so sure his efforts will be rewarded. That’s the problem.
“A man should foot the bill, just like it is the woman who must bear the children … The job of a woman is to make a good man feel good footing the bill.”
Yes, that works, and I believe that’s what makes a good marriage work. A man and a woman should complement each other, rather than compete with each other, and both need to bring their personal responsibility to the union. The Taoist “taijitu” symbol is a good illustration – two contrasting parts that nestle into each other to create a greater whole.
But I wasn’t thinking about that ideal, when I wrote that “Free Lunch” paragraph; my thought was political rather than personal. It is more about a society in which women-in-general are “entitled” to all the benefits, take no responsibility for these benefits, and offer no recompense to the men who work to provide these benefits.
The thing I got from the “Who Needs Love” article is this gamer has his hobby of video games and his GF has her hobby of watching TV. What the unattractive venom-spewers don’t realize is he was making concessions to participate (though grudgingly) in his GF’s hobby while she did not make effort to participate in his.
The defensive tone of his writing suggests he’s been shamed for his love of video games previously. The article ends on a “gamer entitlement” accusation, but he sounds reasonable to me. “Join in or learn to live with it”. The writer of the article and the gamer’s GF are projecting their entitlement complex onto him.
Hint: Breaking up your relationship over video games is going to get you harshly critcized. Except maybe by other gamers.